Freedom
by CBLillias
Summary: After the events of Portal 2, Chell tries to figure out what to do next. Mild Chell/GLaDOS.


A/N: First fanfic I ever wrote — well, completed, that is.

I got the idea for this fic when I was listening to an interview with Ellen McLain (GLaDOS's voice actress, though I hope you knew that). At one point, she was talking about GLaDOS and Chell's relationship, and her opinion is that GLaDOS views their enmity as being sort of a game (no pun intended); that she wants to always beat Chell, but at the same time, she wants Chell to keep coming back for more. Then, of course, I had to overanalyze "Want You Gone", and this fic was born.

This takes place right after the events of Portal 2. Note that, for the purposes of this story, Chell apparently has a perfect memory for song lyrics.

[insert obligatory "do not own" disclaimer here]

As this is my first fanfic, like I said, reviews are extra-appreciated.

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><p>Chell may have got her freedom, but it turned out that getting one's freedom and figuring out what to do with it were two different puzzles entirely.<p>

There were no landmarks to travel towards, no hints of civilization, not even a source of food or water. Just wheat fields stretching into the distance, their brilliant golden hue contrasting sharply with the blue of the sky. Blue and gold.

As the sun sank lower in the sky, the sunset turned the fields to orange. Blue and orange.

Every time Chell closed her eyes, she could see blue and orange swirls gathering behind her eyelids.

The effects of the adrenal vapor were wearing off fast, but Chell stubbornly fought the urge to sleep. She needed to figure out her next course of action; sleeping was just a waste of time, and she didn't have much time left.

_**You've got your short, sad life left… **_

It was true. She'd die if she didn't manage to find some source of nourishment soon. How long had she gone without food in the Enrichment Center? It felt like forever.

The other problem was Companion Cube. She couldn't just leave it. Not after all it had been through, not after she had been forced to drop it into the incinerator—

_don't be stupid, it's just a cube—_

It wasn't just a cube. It was her friend. Her only friend.

_**Goodbye, my only friend… **_

But if she didn't leave it, she would have to drag it everywhere, and that would slow her down tremendously. Not to mention cause her to expend valuable energy, energy she would need to survive.

It was almost as if GLaDOS had deliberately found a way to anchor her to the Enrichment Center.

She had to have known Chell wouldn't leave the cube behind. She must have been counting on that.

_**That's what I'm counting on.**_

And the _song_, the song was maddening, the tune echoing in her ears, the words pounding in her skull like a puzzle she couldn't solve.

_**Well, here we are again.**_

_**It's always such a pleasure.**_

_**Remember when you tried to kill me twice?**_

She remembered, yes. She remembered that, and very little else. Everything prior to waking up in the Enrichment Center was one long blur.

_**Oh, how we laughed and laughed.**_

_**Except I wasn't laughing.**_

_**Under the circumstances,**_

_**I've been shockingly nice.**_

GLaDOS _had_ been shockingly nice. Shocking because niceness wasn't a part of her character. Chell was practically aching with confusion.

_Why did she let me go?_

Killing Chell would have been simple. A little neurotoxin while she was unconscious, or, for that matter, while she was awake. The turrets didn't need to sing for her—they could have shot her, and there was nothing she could have done about it. For that matter, GLaDOS could have simply left Chell to die in outer space.

_**You want your freedom?**_

_**Take it.**_

_**That's what I'm counting on.**_

But freedom was a useless gesture if freedom meant being stranded in the middle of nowhere. Freedom meant death unless you had some means of survival. And the one thing Chell had depended on to get her out of tough situations, the portal gun, was gone.

Of course, she couldn't have used it outside of Aperture. It was useless, just like her ability to solve a test.

_**I used to want you dead, **_

_**but**_

_**Now I only want you gone.**_

_Why? _Chell didn't understand. GLaDOS was a sociopath, a being who only cared about testing and sarcasm and maybe cake, and yet…

…she had let Chell go.

There had to be a trick. Unless…

Unless GLaDOS really did care about her.

Why? What possible reason could the AI have for setting Chell free, no strings attached?

_**She was a lot like you**_

_**(Maybe not quite as heavy)**_

_**Now little Caroline is in here too**_

Caroline. GLaDOS's former self, whom the AI claimed she'd deleted. But that could be just another lie.

How could you delete your own conscience, after all?

Chell chose to ignore the crack about her weight. That was just typical GLaDOS behavior, and she wasn't going to let it get to her.

_**One day they woke me up**_

_**So I could live forever.**_

_**It's such a shame the same**_

_**Will never happen to you.**_

GLaDOS had talked about a medical procedure, or medical experiment, that she planned to perform on Chell. At the time, Chell had imagined only horrible things, and most of her imaginings had involved gruesome torture instruments and ended with copious amounts of neurotoxin.

But perhaps GLaDOS had meant something simpler: a way of making Chell live forever.

It was straightforward from a revenge point of view: if you're immortal and like to hold grudges, what better way to get revenge on your greatest enemy than by making them suffer through your every sarcastic jibe, petty insult, or sadistic torment forever? Chell had no doubt that the idea would have been very appealing to GLaDOS.

Yet it had been discarded, and Chell had been released to live out the rest of her existence away from Aperture and GLaDOS.

There had to be some reason for that, some complex mind-game GLaDOS was playing. It couldn't be as simple as "Goodbye".

_**You've got your short, sad life left**_

_**That's what I'm counting on.**_

_**I'll let you get right to it, **_

_**Now I only want you gone.**_

Did GLaDOS really want to get rid of her? It was strange, but Chell found herself growing almost offended by the notion. GLaDOS had been holding all the cards, and while Chell didn't know if they were all full houses (or what that meant, for that matter), she had expected GLaDOS's hand to be played. not tossed aside. She hadn't expected the AI to simply let the other player walk out the door undefeated.

It was the unexpectedness of the action that disturbed her. Almost as if GLaDOS had deliberately decided to screw with Chell's head.

What was going on here?

_**Goodbye, my only friend… **_

_**Oh, did you think I meant you?**_

Who else could she have meant?

Chell had noticed a strange undertone to GLaDOS's words before; beneath the sarcasm, the bitterness, and the passive-aggression, there had always been a touch of something else. Chell had interpreted it before as sadistic pleasure in having regained the upper hand, but perhaps there was more to it than that.

Perhaps there had been respect. Grudging, certainly, but it would be nearly impossible not to respect someone who'd gotten the upper hand when fighting against a nearly-omnipotent opponent.

Perhaps it was something else.

Perhaps, during the time they'd been allies, the touches of respect had blossomed into something resembling affection.

It was a ridiculous notion, but the more Chell thought about it, the more it seemed perfectly reasonable and not ridiculous at all.

_**That would be funny if it weren't so sad.**_

And maybe GLaDOS's denial of her feelings towards Chell would be sweet, if it wasn't so infuriating.

GLaDOS never was able to say what she meant, was she?

Chell reflected on this briefly, but stopped after she caught herself beginning to smile. _Stop it, Chell. You're being ridiculous._

_She's your worst enemy. She's a monster. She's… _

…That thought was cut off by another one, stronger and almost gleeful.

_She likes me._

_**Well, you have been replaced.**_

_**I don't need anyone now.**_

Chell shook her head slightly, the smile on her face turning into a grin.

_Yes, you do. You know you do._

_You need me._

_**When I delete you,**_

_**Maybe I'll stop feeling so bad…**_

GLaDOS's voice had sounded slightly blurrier when she sang that last line, as if she didn't want Chell to hear it. Or as if she wanted Chell to think she didn't want her to hear it.

Nevertheless, the line was there, and the words were still clearly discernible.

Chell, who was sitting atop Companion Cube, sat up a bit straighter as a thought struck her.

It was obvious, wasn't it?

_**Go make some new disaster. **_

_**That's what I'm counting on.**_

Well, that was almost an_ invitation… _

Chell stood up, stretched, looked up at the full moon hanging overhead. It was beautiful, sure, but Chell couldn't help seeing it in a more practical light; as one big portal surface.

When you've already shot the moon, where do you go from there?

She turned around to face the little shed behind her.

_**You're someone else's problem,**_

_**Now I only want you gone.**_

The door opened easily. The elevator was still there, as if it had been waiting for her.

Chell took one last look out at the freedom she'd been offered, at the starry night sky, at the wheat fields, at Companion Cube. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, trying to seal the image in her memory.

_**Now I only want you gone.**_

Chell stepped into the elevator and watched as the door of the shed swung shut, blotting out the stars.

The elevator doors shut. The elevator began to descend.

It shot back down into the depths of the facility with a speed that felt oddly surreal. Chell caught brief glimpses of the now-silent turrets, their red eyes glowing dimly in the half-light, and even briefer glimpses of empty chambers and the faint evidence of someone else having once lived out their days in Aperture.

And through all of it, she could feel a growing surge of excitement that definitely wasn't from adrenal vapor.

_**Now I only want you gone… **_

"Well." GLaDOS spun gracefully around to face her old adversary, a hint of synthetic surprise in her voice. "Look who's back."

Chell didn't budge from the elevator. Her face was set into her customary expression of annoyance, but GLaDOS thought she could detect something else in the human woman's body language. She wasn't sure what it was, but there would be time for further analysis later.

"I would have thought you'd be off doing whatever humans like to do in wheat fields. Composing primitive dances in honor of the moon, perhaps." GLaDOS leaned slightly closer to Chell, her yellow optic scrutinizing the former test subject closely. "But instead, you came back here. I never knew you loved testing so much."

Chell remained silent as always, but there was a hint of smugness to the silence this time. GLaDOS felt faintly amused. She was the one who should be feeling smug. It was amazing what a little reverse psychology could do.

"This just proves how _bad_ you are at making decisions, doesn't it? You could have had the entire planet to yourself. I don't think there are many humans left anymore. Not that it would have mattered to you. I'm sure you could have murdered anyone who got in the way of your delusional quests to prove yourself." GLaDOS watched Chell carefully, looking for any reaction the words were having on her, and noticed the ghost of a smile flickering about the woman's lips. "That behavior probably stems from you being adopted; you're always feeling inferior because your birth parents didn't like you. And neither did anyone else." Now the smile was growing into a grin. GLaDOS felt distinctly unsettled by this reaction; she'd expected to be met with cold silence and colder stares, but not this. This was unexpected.

GLaDOS had planned on saying more, but she decided against it. There was a period of silence, broken only by the soft sound of Chell's breathing and the hum of GLaDOS's motors and processors as she studied Chell.

"And you left your Companion Cube behind. That was…" GLaDOS trailed off as a thought struck her. "You wanted to give it its freedom, didn't you?"

GLaDOS chose to interpret Chell's silence as a "yes", and continued. "Hopefully it's smarter than you are. Leading a temporary, primitive existence on the surface isn't so bad. It's what most humans do. Of course, they don't have a choice, do they?" She paused, allowing Chell the opportunity to speak, although she knew the chances of her taking it were slim. "And you did. In fact, I'll be generous: you still do. All you have to do is nod, and the elevator will take you back up to the surface. You can do whatever you want, provided that what you want to do is be alone in a wheat field."

As before, GLaDOS gave Chell the opportunity to respond, though she knew already what the answer would be. She'd been counting on this.

Sure enough, Chell hesitated only briefly before giving a faint shake of her head. GLaDOS's body heaved a sigh of mock exasperation, but secretly she could feel a faint rush of satisfaction at seeing the pieces of her plan fall into place.

It was just a matter of pushing the right buttons in Chell's head.

Oh, she hadn't been lying when she said Chell was dangerous. But what was the fun in having an archenemy if there wasn't a little risk? Besides, she'd never make the same mistakes twice, and playing a game was all worth it if you won. And losing to Chell in the past had only made GLaDOS want to win that much more.

She never thought she'd be borrowing a phrase from that little idiot, but in this case it seemed appropriate: _let the games begin._


End file.
